Okay, I have a big time crunch to deal with and got an informal nod toward using the Lola Mk 1 body basics, as long as I don't make something that can be mistaken for a real Lola Mk 1, so I'm galloping down that path.

I'm calling this car the Lalo. I'm following the naming tradition Ron Champion started with the Locost--a combination descriptive term and parody of its inspiration (Lalo, get it? Pronounced with a long A and long O = lay low) plus I've already got the theme music written.

Ahem. To the tune of the chorus of the Eric Clapton/Derek and the Dominoes song "Layla":

It'll be a trifle bigger (wider and longer and taller) than the Lola but I think it will have the look and feel of the late '50s, early '60s sports racers--a lot of them shared the same styling cues (Birdcage Maserati for example) of deep rounded fenders etc. But Curtis Unlimited has Lola Mk 1 molds so that's my starting point.

No, it's a racing stripe all right, it just looks odd because I painted it with clear paint.

Sadly I have to enlarge the bubble to fit the turbo and plumbing on the Kubota. For the Miata motor version I plan to make a more Lotusish sped bump (it'll need some space under there) but I was hoping the Kubota motor would fit without mods. If it had, I would have shortened the control arms an inch and a half and left the nose unmodified.

Gad. If I'd thought things would escalate to Barry Manilow, I wouldn't have started the ball rolling with the Layla parody.

This one is a sheep in wolf's clothing, but when the time comes to make a Miata-powered Lalo, it'll be a wolf in wolf's clothing.

Updates will come, right now I'm catching up on a bunch of stuff but the Lalo will be my front burner project soon. I have a cross country green car rally to attend in August.

The stern is going to look much like the sterns of half the sports racers of The Day. The majority of late '50s/early '60s open two seat racers had rounded raised fenders, higher than the rest of the body work (in front, a hood line as low as the engine allowed, and higher than the back of the cockpit in the rear), a too-rounded-for-optimum-streamlining tail section, and a head fairing for the driver. Lola, Ferrari, Scarab, Maserati...you had to be a fan to tell them apart. The Lalo is going to be sort of a generic 1959 sports racer, with aerodynamic improvements subtle enough not to jar the viewer.

To make width variable, the plan is to make compound curved rear fenders joined with a simple curved sheetmetal "trunk" section. Much as with my avatar, the complex body parts will be joined with simple sheet body parts, so wheelbase and track and height can be adjusted to fit the chassis.

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